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West Ham 1 Arsenal 2: Wenger's men climb above hosts

Arsenal leapfrogged West Ham into fifth place in the Premier League with a 2-1 victory at Upton Park on Sunday.

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Written ByJack Davies

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West Ham came into the fixture having won six of their last
seven league matches on home soil, and threatened to continue that
impressive form when Alex Song found the net after five minutes,
though the ex-Arsenal man's strike was chalked off for offside.

Sam Allardyce's men continued to look the better team for large
spells of the opening period, but were undone shortly before the
break.

Santi Cazorla's penalty after being felled by Winston Reid in
the 41st minute came somewhat against the run of play, before Danny
Welbeck doubled the visitors' lead three minutes later.

Cheikhou Kouyate's headed goal nine minutes after the interval
gave the home side hope of salvaging something from the tie, but
Arsenal held on for maximum points.

The result sees Arsenal go fifth, two points clear of West Ham,
who now sit sixth.

Song returned to captain West Ham against his former club, as
Allardyce made five changes to the side that lost 2-0 at Chelsea on
Friday, and had the ball in the back of the net after five
minutes.

The midfielder lashed home from 25 yards when the ball fell to
him from a corner, but the effort was ruled out after the linesman
deemed Diafra Sakho to be in an offside position on the edge of the
six-yard box.

Arsenal, who made three changes from their 2-1 win over QPR,
struggled to find their feet in the early stages, and West Ham had
appeals for a penalty waved away soon after the disallowed goal
when Sakho went down under the challenge of Mathieu Debuchy.

Alexis Sanchez twice went close as the visitors improved but
James Tomkins squandered a golden opportunity to mark his 200th
West Ham appearance with a goal when he lifted the ball over the
crossbar from a Stewart Downing cross.

He was soon made to rue that miss, when a falling Reid caught
Cazorla as he charged into the penalty area – the Spaniard burying
the resulting spot-kick in the bottom left-hand corner of the
net.

Arsenal made it two just three minutes later, with Welbeck
sliding in to convert an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain cross after a neat
passing move.

Carroll headed narrowly over as West Ham looked to reduce the
deficit at the beginning of the second half, but Kouyate had more
success in the 54th minute as he nodded in off the head of Debuchy
from a Tomkins cross.

Adrian got down brilliantly to his left to prevent Cazorla
re-establishing the two-goal advantage soon after, before Reid
tested Wojciech Szczesny with an improvised effort from 25 yards at
the other end.

Welbeck came close to a brace when he drilled wide after
charging down the left wing, and Adrian was forced into excellent
saves from Oxlade-Chamberlain and Alexis late on.

Wenger will be grateful to come away from Upton Park with the
three points, though, as his side were forced to cope with
sustained injury-time pressure from the home side, culminating in
Enner Valencia heading just over shortly before the final
whistle.